Patient hospitality services

Boredom is a huge problem for patients and can adversely affect their recovery. Today, it can be greatly relieved by bedside terminals that deliver a wide rage of personal entertainment, communications and stimulation directly to each patient. Services can include television, video-on-demand, telephony and Internet access. Medical personnel can also use terminals to access securely password-protected medical records.

Boredom among patients can be a serious issue in hospitals. It can lead to low morale, which may slow recovery. This, in turn, can result in beds being occupied for longer than would otherwise necessary.

For healthcare managers, boredom can mean slower patient turnarounds, and longer waiting lists for admittance.

Services such as television, video-on-demand, telephony and Internet access help to fill patients’ days, and so maintain good morale. NextiraOne can provide at every bedside integrated patient terminals that deliver all this functionality.

As well as unblocking beds, patient hospitality solutions can provide other benefits. Most hospitals that already have such systems choose to run them at a profit, and this can provide a useful revenue stream that can be diverted directly into patient care.

Our patient hospitality solutions

Integrated patient terminals offer simple access to entertainment, information and communications:

a. General information on the hospital: services, menus, visiting times, worship opportunities and so on.
b. Internet (and so email) access, television channels, and video on demand.
c. Telephony services.
d. Wireless Internet access hot spots for visitors and for patients who wish to use their own laptops.
e. Bedside access to EMRs for authorised staff (secure log-on required).

Naturally, patients have to pay for these services, and managers may allow them to do so in all or any of three self-service ways:

1. By enabling patients to authorise on-screen the automatic debiting of the cost to their final bills.
2. By enabling a patient or visitor to pay in advance by debit or credit card using the terminal’s screen.
3. By providing machines in wards that issue numbered vouchers in exchange for cash. Each voucher’s unique numbers are then entered on-screen and its value credited to that terminal.

The hospital can choose from two tariff models: a daily charge for unlimited access to all services, or a price-per-use. Payments are managed automatically and the demands that the solution makes on staff should range from zero to negligible.

The value NextiraOne adds to patient hospitality solutions

NextiraOne has worked with literally thousands of hospitals and clinics across Europe. Consequently, we have developed a genuine appreciation of the unique challenges and issues that clinicians and administrators face. And we are able to tailor solutions that will meet any hospital’s needs and return a useful profit.

Our expertise

• The provision of expert advice concerning the financial implications of a proposed solution, such as return on investment calculations, and alternative risk management and ownership models, including outsourcing and managed services.
• The design of state-of-the-art, low maintenance solutions.
• The identification of the most appropriate technologies, based on our analysis of the hospital’s needs.
• The customisation, deployment and integration of the selected technologies.
• The provision of a tailored service and support model that will ensure the continuing optimum performance, availability and security of the solution throughout its lifecycle.